It’s a pivotal moment for the New York Knicks and long-suffering but passionate, devoted fans, aiming for their first NBA title in 50 years. Despite being one of the most recognisable emblems of American basketball, it’s been a half-century since a major victory. But still, through the decades, courtside seats have provided their own form of entertainment for those watching TV screens through their hands at home or blown up on kiss cam.

Games have always drawn celebrity fans, but there’s precedent set with the New York Knicks, especially in their home arena of Madison Square Garden. When you take your eye off the ball, you see more emotion, energy, and sense of style on “Celebrity Row” than you might do some years at the Oscars or Grammys.

The New York Knicks’ famous fans seem to be a bit of a rare breed, too, for how they become regularly attending fanatics. Take Spike Lee, Larry David, Ben Stiller, and Tracy Morgan, for example, rarely missing an important game and Lee, in particular, dressing in the drippiest orange-and-blue combo he can style out.

Native Manhattanite Timothee Chalamet, who has been attending games since he won a pair of tickets in 2010, has drafted in Calabasas girlfriend Kylie Jenner (plus, sister Kendall) on all of the Knicks’ winning games. (So far). It’s where we’ve seen the couple at their most intimate, and candid. In recent years, courtside is a seal for a new level of celebritydom, a burnt orange and blue fashion show, an awards campaign strategy, and maybe, just maybe, the ultimate celebrity let-looser.

But over the years, it’s been mostly about the unexpected and sometimes totally wacky combinations of stars that have sat together on the MSG Celebrity Row. Through the ’90s and early ’00s, seatmates included Kim Cattrall and Beyoncé; Whoopi Goldberg and Sean Penn; Pamela Anderson and Stephen Dorff; Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman; Beth Ostrosky, Howard Stern, and Paris Hilton. Everyone from Calvin Klein to Chloë Sevigny, Madonna, and Bill Murray have cheered from the sidelines. There’s a beaming Kyle MacLachlan and an unbothered Brittany Murphy, Lindsay Lohan about to chew off her nails with nerves, a locked-in Leonardo DiCaprio, and Hugh Jackman in a trilby.

Below, see some of the vibiest, starriest scenes from the MSG front row and New York Knicks games of eras gone by.